Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
There’s a running theme to this list – a lot of the entries feature moments where you realize you’ve been the bad guy all along. Take Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, for example. While you are not tricked into doing bad things over the course of the game like in Braid or Shadow of the Colossus, per se, you do discover at the game’s climax that you were once a Dark Lord of the Sith named Darth Revan, who’s currently suffering through a rough patch of amnesia due to some Jedi mind-wipe trickery.
From that jaw-dropping moment you’re allowed to forge your own path, whether it’s continuing towards the light or once again embracing your destiny as a practitioner of the Dark Side, but no matter what you choose, your perception of your friends and allies is forever changed, leading to quite the great “Oh shit!” feeling in your bones.
Metroid
You’re a girl?! I’m sure that’s the first thought firing through every single male’s brain upon finishing the original Metroid. Up to that point, a female protagonist in a video game was unheard of, so to get one in Samus Aran was quite the surprise. To Nintendo’s credit, leaving that reveal to the very end of the game was a mindfuck masterstroke. One that surely made quite a few boys (and men) think maybe a little too hard about their own sexuality afterwards.
Alan Wake
It can be strongly argued that the entire story of Alan Wake is one giant mindfuck. But the final punch line comes in the closing moments of the game when Wake realizes the lake of Bright Falls isn’t a lake at all – it’s an ocean.
What this means exactly is still a mystery since we haven’t yet received a proper sequel to Alan Wake. What we believe it implies is that the universe of Alan Wake’s novel “Departure” is much grander than was originally thought, and that The Dark Presence is a much more formidable foe than we were led to believe. But until we get a true sequel – not some spin-off with 100% more flannel– we’re left just scratching our heads and theorizing what the significance of an ocean actually is.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
From the moment the Colonel’s codec starts freaking out, you best buckle in for the ride of your life. The last few hours of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty are quite the trip, as they reveal the entire “Big Shell Incident” was all a government setup to create a soldier as heroic as the legendary Solid Snake; Raiden was just a pawn in an experiment, basically.
What follows is a series of double- and triple-agent reveals, as well as a number of other whackadoo theories explaining the true intentions of The Patriots and how they are looking out for peoples’ best interests by controlling the flow of information to avoid dumbing down the populous. It’s all very absurd, but somehow works within the confines of the Metal Gear universe due to series creator Hideo Kojima being some sort of mad genius. At least that’s just what we say so we don’t have to think too hard about it.
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Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below.
Erik Norris is the Gaming Editor for CraveOnline and co-host of Watch Us Play and the Next Gen News podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @Regular_Erik.
